High school student runs obscene site

A high school student was arrested Friday for operating an obscene Internet site, which shows films of male adults having sex with young girls. The student is also accused of selling CDs and videotapes containing these films.

The cyber-crime investigation team at the Seoul Metropolitan Policy Agency sought an arrest warrant for a 19-year-old high school student whose name was withheld on charges of violating a law on the protection of juveniles. According to the police, the student opened an Internet site called "Rolita" last November to show obscene sex films and has also sold sex videotapes and CDs.

Investigators said that the student had linked up with a foreign X-rated Internet site last August before opening a separate site of his own. The number of visitors to the site reached 320,000 as of Jan. 4, only one and a half months after the site opened, and he collected about 5 million won in profits.

Prof. Min Sung-Kil of Yonsei Severance Hospital said the case was all the more shocking because the offender is an adolescent. He said that a moral rearmament campaign may be necessary to protect society from the massive number of porn sites.

Huh Mun-Myung angelhuh@donga.com